Friday, September 18, 2009

I’m inspired by the many articles I’ve read and images I’ve seen regarding vertical gardening. It’s a fantastic idea to save space – especially for an apartment dweller like me, who has a small balcony space to play with.

This is an idea that have been brewing in the last few days – it is inexpensive, flexible and effective.This vertical garden solution uses a wooden fence, which hangs on a wall. A number of pots hangs on this wooden fence vertically, using no floor space at all.

How?Get a wooden fence and use plastic pots that come with new plants – they already have holes on the top for information tags. Discard the tag, then put one end of an “S” hook into the hole and simply hook onto your wooden fence! Voila!

You can let loose and paint the wooden fence all sort of colours and patterns, and use colourful pots. However, for those of us who are not so brave with colours, or prefer a more natural look, use the wood as it or apply a wood stain for a warmer finish. Pots of the same colour or same size will provide unity to your vertical garden. More illustrations later…

Inexpensive

What is required:

a wooden fence (measured to fit your wall size), from which to hang the pots

plastic pots – they are perfect for your vertical garden because they are so light. The number of pots you require will depend on the size of your wood. You may not to purchase these if you save them up when you buy new plants.

“S” hooks, which can be found in hardware stores

Flexible and Effective

This solution enables you to:

move your pots and plants around. Perhaps one section of the wood/vertical garden gets more sun than the other. Or perhaps you may want to place trailing plants on the top…

add your pots as you need them. There is no need to purchase all the pots outright if you do not want to, but add them slowly as required.

vary the arrangement, and have a new design everyday (as shown in the illustrations below) – what fun!

obviously save space (and add interest to your wall), and

have many small pots without any clutter! (The succulent collector in me says “yeah!” – lots of small pots for my collection of interesting succulents, since I can only afford small plants).

Here are some photos of my experiment with a few pots and “S” hooks:

You many want to consider the wind condition in your area. The pots may need to be more securely attached if there is a chance that the wind will throw them around!